Freshly Ground Heaven
by Sybella
Summary: Spanning time, distances and heartbreaks. Our favorite New Yorkers contemplate life, love and sex over a cup of coffee. First part: Caramel- Nate/Vanessa. Second part: Honey- Blair/Chuck Third part: Espresso- Rufus/lily
1. Caramel

Author: Sybella

Title: Freshly Ground Heaven

Character/Pairings: Everything is fair game.

Summary: Spanning time, distances and heartbreaks. Our favorite New Yorkers contemplate life, love and sex over a cup of coffee.

Disclaimer: All the characters are the property of the CW and Cecily. This is merely my own wild imagination.

_Coffee, chocolate, men. Some things are best rich._

He smoothes down the lapels of his grey over coat, passes a hand over his hair. It's all habit. Sprucing himself up for a date, his finger move to straighten his tie in an automatic gesture before he rings the doorbell and he can't remember if these actions are by products of his pre adolescent marriage to Blair or a life long friendship with Chuck Bass.

It's hard to think of either when she pulls back the door. "Nate," she starts, emerald eyes going wide, "You're early."

"I missed you," he breathes, with that sheepish grin that's melted hearts since he was ten, and his girlfriends own lips twist in reluctant response. She reaches forward to stroke his forelock in a gesture that has come to mean "Good Morning," and it lifts Nate's heart because with her, he no longer needs kisses and promises.

Her fingers through his hair say it all.

They step into the café, quiet and waiting and watch the dawn peep through the blinds. She's at home behind that counter, book propped up against the cash register and he takes a stool across from her.

His eyes flick over her dark mauve t-shirt, long sleeves rolled back so that her cinnamon skin is exposed, her long legs clad in skinny jeans and knee length boots and he smiles.

She pours him a cup of coffee. Not too strong, not too light and a shot of caramel. He never drank the stuff before he met Vanessa.

His mother drank tea in the afternoons and served Nate a cup when she felt lonely. Blair drank espresso, to chase away the bleary mornings because she'd been up all night studying for that test. Chuck drank Scotch be it morning, noon or night and Serena survived on sunshine and cheeseburgers and the occasional mimosa.

He'd tried all of these things, with his family and truth be told, he'd liked them, too.

He liked walking Blair to school, her head resting on his shoulder like it carried the weight of the world, her Starbucks pressed between them for warmth. He liked sipping chamomile with his mother and texting Chuck under the table and he liked getting drunk with his friends.

But all those activities were never truly his. They belonged to people he shared them with and he was merely an onlooker to the ritual.

Caramel cappuccinos every morning with right before him, her brow furrowed in concentration as she flips through Fitzgerald. They own this equally, no words, no instructions and no dope needed to complete the moment.

"Vanessa," he whispers into the spell bound air and he waits for her to look up. Blue meets sea and –"You hit the spot."


	2. Honey

Author: Sybella

Title: Freshly Ground Heaven

Character/Pairings: Everything is fair game.

Summary: Spanning time, distances and heartbreaks. Our favorite New Yorkers contemplate life, love and sex over a cup of coffee.

Disclaimer: All the characters are the property of the CW and Cecily. This is merely my own wild imagination.

_I like my coffee like my women: hot, strong, steamy._

"Princess," he whispers and her eye lashes flutter like drowsy butterflies against the apples of her cheeks, "Did Snow White need a kiss to wake her?"

She groans and turns her back to him, silk sheets following the twist of her body. Since she offers no suitable response, he tugs her towards him and drops his lips to her own, smirking when she moans her body's instantaneous response.

"Breakfast in bed?" he murmurs, because it is, after all, _his_ fault that she's so tired. His lips curve triumphant when he thinks of the last night, her nails digging into his shoulders, raking through his hair, head thrown back in wild abandon and it had been far too long since the last time they did this.

Too long to stop before the sun came up.

She nods against his chest, sighing sleepily as he pulls away and her head falls back amidst the white throw pillows. He's talking into the receiver, softly and her mind's slipping back into sleep so she can't hear a word.

It works though, because ten minutes later there's a knock at the door and a long trolley is wheeled in. He pours her an espresso himself, dark eyes glinting wickedly as he serves her, an array of smells hitting her at once. Peaches, she thinks, her tiny nose scrunched to sniff, and the pancakes she knows he adores. She accepts the caffeine with an almost reluctance that makes him grin even wider.

She looks up at him, sharply with the very first sip because she can taste something in her coffee, something he could never have known to add but- there! She slurps again, there it is.

A napkin is raised to her lips, delicately wiping away at the corners and she places the cup on the night stand very, very carefully, before lunging forward to meet his mouth.

Juan takes a hint and leaves, the laden trolley standing right where it is, two feet from the bed.

Their tongues dance, mingle and his hands slip under the sheets, just as she pulls back.

"How did you know?" she breathes against his lips, her face soft with naked delight.

"I could taste it in your mouth when you kissed me." He smiles and runs a hand through her disheveled curls.

"Honey."


	3. Espresso

Author: Sybella

Title: Freshly Ground Heaven

Character/Pairings: Everything is fair game.

Summary: Spanning time, distances and heartbreaks. Our favorite New Yorkers contemplate life, love and sex over a cup of coffee.

Disclaimer: All the characters are the property of the CW and Cecily. This is merely my own wild imagination.

_I make serious coffee - so strong it wakes up the neighbors._

Lily van der Woodsen's lips were blue at eighteen. She wore gloss smeared over them, skirt so short and so tight that her legs were blue, too. She looked an angel. A cold, blue angel in a pretty pink dress her hoop earrings teeter as she struggles to balance herself.

Rufus spies her across the crowd, that heart stopping moment and when his blue angel points a camera lens in his direction, he knows that Lily van der Woodsen will be every cliché he ever dreamed possible.

His legs carry him to her when he hops off stage, eyes seeking her face in the thinning crowd and there she is. Popping back a can of Guinness, lips white and numb and his finger close over her hand.

"You don't want to drink that." His voice is low in her ear and her shiver has nothing to do with the wind.

"Why not?" and she's already smiling at him and she almost wants to slap herself for being so giddy. Almost being the key word.

"Because you're cold." He says it right against her lips, leaning in far too fast and she doesn't even know his name but his arms blanket her own and she feels warm all of a sudden.

His leather jacket hangs off of her thin shoulder, covering the acres of skin that the Armani number left bare. His hands are on her waist and they huddle together for a bit more than warmth, foreheads aligned and he whispers.

"Want to go get some coffee?"

* * *

A/N- I would really love feedback on this chapter. I wanted to do a one shot for each canon pairing but I'm running out. I can't write Dan/Serena for the life of me but do you have any non canon suggestions?


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